Numerous protocols are available for controlling communications across networks. By adhering to standard protocols, disparate computers and networks designed by the same or different entities can exchange packets with each other in a controlled manner. Some networking protocols cause the packets to be transmitted across a network to be encrypted by the source node (i.e., the source of the packet) and decrypted by the destination node (i.e. the recipient of the packet). The encryption and decryption of packets generally includes the use of encryption keys. The Internet Key Exchange (IKE) protocol facilitates the establishment of security associations between the nodes. The IKE protocol uses certificates for authentication of the nodes and a Diffie-Hellman key exchange to set up a shared session secret from which the cryptographic keys can be derived by the nodes.